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Because of some extenuating circumstances, I have done minimal running and yoga. My floors flooded again last month. Ha! Long story short, I have replacement costs built in my insurance, so I get new floors in another week. The old floors (less than a year old) are in a dumpster in my driveway. Paid in full as of today.

Also, because of the well-known math teacher shortage, I accepted a transfer from the alternative school back to the high school; days before the school year began. Busy is an understatement. Life is good, and so is God. I plan to run my first long run with my running group in about 4 weeks. Six miles. I will tell you about it. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year. I hope you were able to enjoy the holidays. I did, despite life happenings. I am just recovering from last week’s bout of a bad cold and sinus infection. I felt the symptoms last Monday, saw the doctor Tuesday, and now it is New Year’s and I feel normal again. Just in time to go back to work tomorrow.

Instead of running the Thanksgiving Half Marathon, I ended up running 10 miles with one of my runner friends. That gave me precious time for the rest of the day to spend with my family. Particularly my Grandmother, as she peacefully passed a few weeks ago at 93.

Back in August, she thought it was NOT a good idea because Thanksgiving is THE holiday in my family. Quite honestly, I don’t think my parents were too keen on the idea, but Grandmother was verbal about it. I thought it would be okay, as I would be back in town by noon or so. A month prior, I told Grandmother that I would be staying in town and not running the race, and she was pleased. Instead, I ran the 26.2 Soldier Marathon Relay here in town with 3 other ladies.

For the past couple of weeks, I have run 3-6 miles a handful of times. They were good runs too. I have also been doing a daily yoga practice at my local studio and at home. I have new floors installed throughout my entire house, so I have been practicing in different rooms to figure out which one works the best. So tell me, how have you all ben doing?

At the end of July, I signed up for not 1, but 2 races in November. I signed up for the Soldier Marathon with some friends and the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon. The 2 races are about 5 days apart. For the past year, I have been completing group runs with a certified running coach (through my running store in town). I asked her if that was too much (you know after I signed up and paid). Fortunately, she said no.

The Soldier Marathon is being discontinued after this year. I raced my first half marathon there and it was life-changing. I am opting to participate in the marathon relay. With the relay, 4 of us will run 6-7 miles a piece. We know each other from Black Girls Run. To make it more fun, we ordered matching t-shirts for the race.

With the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half, I saw free parking and race day bib pickup and lost my cool. That, gentle reader, is not a legit reason to run a race.

I rarely get that impulsive about anything. But for whatever reason, I just had to sign up to run this race (and pay the 100 bucks). A financial guru once said that if you get that impulsive to spend money, you may need to take a cold shower. I think he was kidding, but the more I think about it, not so much.

The surprising effect has been that since the school year has resumed, my hard earned running base has allowed me to run well during the week despite having busy workdays. I have also been pairing the runs with yoga practice afterward at a nearby yoga studio. At this point, my training plan has me running for an hour. I have been running 40-45 minutes and then high tailing it to yoga. I am going kick it up to an hour of running and scale down on the yoga.

Even though I have been able to run my Saturday long runs, I have had to run the last few weekends by myself. I’ve struggled to get up early in the morning. The group takes off at 6:00 a.m. This Saturday is the last double-digit run with a group, so I am going to make sure I go bed early Friday night. I’ll keep you posted.

It may not seem like it, but I think about you all daily. Something will happen, and I say to whoever is listening to me, “I SHOULD BLOG ABOUT THAT!”. Sometimes the listener agrees, and sometimes they say nothing. I’m waiting for the day someone says “Nah. Keep that one to yourself”.

Hair products that I use as a natural hair African American. Particularly while running in high humidity and practicing hot yoga. Our hair is not easy to manage, and I learned a lot of tips and tricks from social media. I feel compelled to give back.

My Debt Freedom Journey: Working to be debt free but my mortgage by August 2018.

My summer, fitness wise, has consisted of building mileage and lots of yoga. I bought a 3-month unlimited yoga pass to a nearby studio, which is something I do once a year or so. I have been enjoying my yoga practices so much that sometimes I go for a run and then do yoga practice that same day.

To be fair, I have the summer off from my school system and teach an Algebra course for my state’s virtual school. Having this setup aids in my body being able to rest and recover for the next day. It’s still quite busy though.

I’ve been running between 3-4.5 miles 3 times a week and a 6 mile run on Saturdays. I want to build my mileage as much as I can before August, but… you know how I am. For example, my running coach instructed us to run 10 miles. When I woke up and got there, I wasn’t feeling that idea. So six miles it was.

That may sound like a humble brag, but I’m not about that. You see, what “had happened was” I was at Fresh Market yesterday evening and my mind told me to get a coffee while I was shopping around. Clearly, I wasn’t thinking. I couldn’t put together why I did not sleep well. This morning, when I hoped in the car, that empty coffee cup brought me back to reality.

The highlighted link above is the basis of a writing prompt. For a while, I was at a loss about what to write. I wanted to deflect and call this prompt lame and stupid. From there, I would be excused from blogging and thus go on about my day. That would be a form of denial. Deflection is a form of denial. See how that works.

I almost denied myself a chance of my writing comfort zone. So what is the opposite of denial? Staring the truth in the eye, devising an action plan, AND acting on it. Go on. Try it. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.

Here is the logic when I saw the $25 Big Dog Trail 5k/10k race here in town:

“Twenty five bucks for the 5k and the 10k? Might as well get my money’s worth and run the 10k”.

That’s okay if you have trail running experience. For some reason I was inclined to think it was going to be a cute little scenic run like high school cross country running. NO. It’s running through ditches and large tree roots. Just imagine high stepping off and on for 6 miles.

(This is a picture of the the trail that I found online. The race used red tape and red flags to keep runners on the course. There was also a simultaneous bike race. So we runners had to also be on the look out of not being ran over by mountain bikes. )

Despite the drama of the terrain, the run is worth it because the scenery is beautiful. I would have taken pictures, but I needed to focus in fear of falling and breaking my neck. I’ll take pictures next time, as I want to run this race again next year.

I will wear my race t-shirt with lots of pride and dignity!

(The Bookworm is currently reading Hidden Figures.)

I haven’t seen the movie, but I will as some point. The book is nonfiction, but when I see the movie I will be prepared not to do the comparison thing. Hollywood producers can be inclined to mold true stories into historical fiction.

Remember the last post, back in December, when I was whining about running in the cold? Well, race day, the temperature was the same (a windy 29 degrees). With a virtual push from my Facebook friends, I made it my business to solider on to the start line. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this race! It was well organized and nostalgic in a good way.

Half marathon race days are akin to a teenager starting an athletic season. If you played sports back in the day, remember how good it felt to put on that uniform after you been training for several months prior? This particular race gave me the same type of vibe. I think it was the fatigue and stress of training through the holidays

I saw many of my runner friends and acquaintances from the local active community. From what I understand, about 1500 registered for the race and about 500 showed up. I will be running this race again next year. For sure.

My finishing time was 2 hours and 38 minutes. I used the a 90 second/60 second walk- run ratio. This race was very much treated as a long run. Happily, it felt like one too!.

Back in mid-October, I started back with CrossFit and Half Marathon training. It happened on a whim. A lot of whimsical stuff happened around that time. One could blame it on the full moon but that’s another story for another time.

Around this time of year, marathons crop up. I suppose the excitement lead me to more running than usual. I am pairing the CrossFit with running for crosstraining purposes. I have been going to CrossFit on strength days twice a week; For the run, I run once during week and perform a long run each Saturday with a training group.

Kid you not, my running store sponsors a FREE half marathon the first Saturday of January every year. It’s the Red Nose Half Marathon. That’s right, a free half marathon that is about 5 miles away from my house.

(FREE !! FREE!!!! FREE!!!!!!!)

I do have a lingering thought. It’s really cold outside. For example, tomorrow morning’s long run of 11 miles begin with 29 degree weather. Wouldn’t be cool to celebrate half marathon training by….sleeping in race day? Think about it.

(It could be fatique talking. Quiet as it’s kept, I really think it’s the dude on the right talking mess.)

I’ve been easing away from the vegetarian lifestyle by eating tuna fish a few times a week to up my protein. Those little Bumble Bee Tuna and Crackers are tasty. I only like the Thai flavored ones. That’s the only seafood I like right now. I don’t have any interest in going back to white meat or red meat.

(It’s delicious!)

I want to get back into meal prepping. Right now seems impossible, but I want to resume doing so after December 16th when I am on Christmas Break from my full time and part time teaching jobs.

(The Bookworm just finished reading Outliers. Here is her favorite quote from the book:)

Whenever I read another blogger’s race recap, I usually just want to know the person’s race time without doing a lot of reading. So I am going to post it for the people out there who are like me so they … Continue reading →

When I started this blog, I was a fairly high octane chick with a decent level of down time and optimism. This enabled me to do stuff like train for full marathons or CrossFit 4-5 time a week. I enjoyed the experience, but as far as time and recovery was concerned, it wasn’t sustainable for me long term.

I’m more of a scaled down version these days. Like 10k races and YMCA scale down. I’m signing up for the YMCA this week. It’s time to add cross training into my running. Also the area is scenic and runner friendly, so I could go for jog before a yoga class or bodypump class (for example).

Last week, I signed up for a Labor Day 10k race in my town. I plan to walk/run, long run, and socialize during the run. So don’t judge my time in the next post! The only gag is that that a shuttle will not be provided. So more than likely, I will park my car at the finish line and take a taxi to the start.

(That’s why I’m not taking an Uber. Don’t worry, Uber has a launch date in the area for 9/21/16. )

Also, I am leaning toward buying a 10k decal. Even though I have completed distance races ranging from 5k to 26.2 , it was a couple of years ago. I like the idea of representing my most recent distance.